COPENHAGEN, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday that Denmark and Greenland will continue to engage in a constructive dialogue on security in the Arctic, provided that this is done with respect for her country’s territorial integrity.
U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly stepped back on Wednesday from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, ruled out the use of force and suggested a deal was in sight to end a dispute over the Danish territory.
After meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said Western Arctic allies could forge agreement that satisfies his desire for a “Golden Dome” missile‑defence system and access to minerals while blocking Russia and China’s ambitions.
Frederiksen said NATO was fully aware of Denmark’s position, and that she had been informed that Rutte’s talks did not involve her country’s sovereignty.
“”Security in the Arctic is a matter for the entire NATO alliance. Therefore, it is good and natural that it is also discussed between NATO’s secretary general and the president of the United States,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
“The Kingdom of Denmark wishes to continue to engage in a constructive dialogue with allies on how we can strengthen security in the Arctic, including the United States’ Golden Dome, provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity,” she said.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Essi Lehto)
President Donald Trump said Thursday that proposed tariffs against European allies are off the table after what he described as a tentative agreement with NATO tied to Greenland and Arctic security.
Trump said there is now a “concept of a deal” following talks in Switzerland, easing trade tensions that flared after European countries pushed back on his interest in acquiring Greenland.
“I think it’s going to be a very good deal for the United States — also for them,” Trump said to CNBC.
The announcement came after the president said the United States would not use military force to take Greenland from Denmark. Instead, Trump said the focus has shifted to cooperation with allies on security concerns in the Arctic region.
“We’re going to work together on something having to do with the Arctic as a whole, but also Greenland — and it has to do with the security, great security, strong security, and other things,” Trump said.
NBC10 Boston political commentator Sue O’Connell weighs in on Greenland.
Earlier Thursday, the European Union said it would pause adoption of a U.S. trade deal reached last summer in response to Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on a handful of EU countries opposed to U.S. ownership of Greenland.
“We took that off, because it looks like we have, pretty much, a concept of a deal,” he said. “It’s a little bit complex, but we’ll explain it down the line.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Alan Leventhal told NBC10 Boston he agrees with the president on security concerns in the Arctic, particularly as ice caps continue to melt.
“Minerals and resources on the seabed in the Arctic Ocean are going to open up,” Leventhal said.
However, he warned that pressuring allies could risk a broader trade conflict and send the wrong signal to adversaries like Russia and China as it pertains to taking over territory by force.
“I think the best path is to work with the Danes and the Greenlanders to achieve whatever we want on Greenland, short of owning Greenland,” Leventhal said.
Trump said the agreement would “last forever,” though he did not provide details. He also said owning Greenland would give the United States a greater incentive to defend it through his proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system.
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 21 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had accepted his invitation to join Trump’s Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, a statement that Putin quickly countered, saying that the invitation was only under consideration.
“He was invited. He’s accepted,” Trump told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Soon after Trump’s comments, Putin told the Russian security council that the foreign ministry was still studying the proposal and would respond in due course.
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Jeffrey Dastin and Ronald Popeski; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones; editing by Scott Malone)
NUUK, Greenland — President Trump retreated Wednesday from his most serious threats toward Denmark, easing transatlantic tensions and lifting Wall Street after rejecting the prospect he would use military force to annex Greenland, a Danish territory and the world’s largest island.
Instead, the United States struck a “framework” agreement in talks with NATO’s secretary general regarding the future of Greenland, “and in fact, the whole Arctic region,” Trump wrote on social media. He did not immediately provide details on the contents of the plan.
The whiplash of developments followed weeks of escalating threats from the president to control Greenland by any means necessary — including by force, if left with no other choice.
Now, “the military’s not on the table,” Trump told reporters at the economic forum in Switzerland, acknowledging sighs of relief throughout the room.
“I don’t think it will be necessary,” he said. “I really don’t. I think people are going to use better judgment.”
It was a turn of events that came as welcome news in Nuuk, where signs hang in storefronts and kitchen windows rejecting American imperialism.
“It’s difficult to say what are negotiating tactics, and what the foundation is for him saying all of this,” said Finn Meinel, an attorney born and raised in the Greenlandic capital. “It could be that joint pressure from the EU and NATO countries has made an impact, as well as the economic numbers in the states. Maybe that has had an influence.”
President Trump speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
In his speech at Davos, Trump took note of the market turmoil his threats against Greenland had caused entering the conference. Announcing the agreement framework on social media Wednesday, he said he would pause punitive tariffs planned against longstanding European allies that had refused to support his demands.
Prominent world leaders — including from Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among Washington’s closest allies — had warned earlier this week that Trump’s militant threats against a fellow NATO member were ushering in a new era of global order accommodating a less reliable United States.
For years, Trump has called for U.S. ownership over Greenland due to its strategic position in the Arctic Circle, where ice melting due to climate change is making way for a new era of competition with Russia and China. An Arctic conflict, the president says, will require a robust U.S. presence there.
While the president rejects climate change and its perils as a hoax, he has embraced the opportunities that may come with the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, the world’s largest after Antarctica, including the opening of new shipping lanes and defense positions.
The United States already enjoys broad freedom to deploy any defense assets it sees fit across the island, raising questions in Europe over Trump’s fixation on outright sovereignty over the land.
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else,” Trump said, addressing members of the NATO alliance.
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said. But Europe still has a choice. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative,” he continued, “or you can say no, and we will remember.”
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The day before Trump’s speech, allies warned about a “rupture” in a global order in which the United States could be relied upon as a force of good. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in a speech Tuesday characterized Trump’s push to acquire Greenland as an example of why “the old order is not coming back.”
Trump apparently took note of Carney’s remarks, and told the crowd on Wednesday that Canada “should be grateful.”
“But they are not,” Trump said. “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
The president struck a similar tone with his demands for Greenland, repeatedly characterizing the United States as a “great power” compared with Denmark in its ability to protect the Arctic territory. At one point, he cited the American military’s role in World War II to justify his demands, telling the eastern Swiss audience that, “without us, you’d all be speaking German, or a little Japanese perhaps.”
It was a slight carried forward by the president’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who derided Copenhagen for its decision to divest from U.S. treasuries. “Denmark’s investment in U.S. treasury bonds like Denmark itself is irrelevant,” the secretary said.
In several instances, Trump framed the transatlantic alliance as one that benefits other countries more than the United States.
“We will be with NATO 100%, but I’m not sure they will be there for us,” Trump said. But NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte responded to the concern in their meeting, noting that the alliance’s Article 5 commitment to joint defense has only been invoked once — by the United States, after the September 11th attacks. “Let me tell you: they will,” Rutte said.
But Trump expanded on his thinking over Greenland in his speech to the summit, describing his fixation on Greenland as “psychological,” and questioning why the United States would come to the island’s defense if its only investment was a licensing agreement.
“There’s no sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, whose people I love, whose leaders are very good,” Trump said. “It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant, massive land – this giant piece of ice – develop it, and improve it, and make it so that it’s good for Europe, and safe for Europe, and good for us.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was among the people in the audience reacting to Trump’s remarks in real time. The president’s speech, he told CNN afterward, was “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant.”
“He was never going invade Greenland. It was never real,” Newsom said. “That was always a fake.”
Wilner reported from Nuuk, Ceballos from Washington, D.C.
BUCHAREST, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Romania’s hard-right opposition party the Alliance for Uniting Romanians is towering over the four parties of the pro-European coalition government in popular support, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, although no election is due until 2028.
AUR, the second-largest party in the country, led surveys throughout 2025 despite its leader George Simion ultimately losing a presidential election re-run last May.
The party opposes extending military aid to neighbouring Ukraine, is critical of the European Union’s leadership and supportive of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies including on energy and immigration. Romania is a member of both the EU and NATO.
The latest survey, conducted by pollster INSCOP, showed that 40.9% of Romanians would vote for AUR, the highest level of support for a hard-right party in more than three decades.
The leftist Social Democrats (PSD), currently parliament’s biggest party and a member of the ruling coalition, ranked a distant second with 18.2%.
The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan had 13.5% support. The other two ruling parties – the centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR – polled at 11.7% and 4.9%, respectively.
Romania’s next general election is due in 2028.
The survey was conducted from January 12 to 15 and has a margin of error of 3.0%.
Romania re-ran a presidential election last year after it cancelled the original ballot in December 2024 on suspicion of Russian interference in favour of far-right frontrunner Calin Georgescu.
The cancelled vote plunged the country into its worst political crisis in decades, exposing its deep vulnerability to hybrid attacks and disinformation, dividing voters, crashing markets and threatening the country’s investment-grade rating.
The broad coalition government which came to power after the subsequent ballot raised taxes and cut some state spending to help narrow the widest budget deficit gap in the EU.
While the measures helped keep Romania on the last rung of investment grade and unlocked EU funds, with the budget deficit expected to narrow to around 6% of economic output this year from more than 9% in 2024, they have also triggered protests and fuelled support for the opposition.
BERLIN/PARIS/, Jan 21 (Reuters) – European far-right and populist parties that once cheered on Donald Trump and gained in standing through his praise are now distancing themselves from the U.S. president over his military incursion into Venezuela and bid for Greenland.
The Trump administration has repeatedly backed far-right European parties that share a similar stance on issues from immigration to climate change, helping legitimize movements that have long faced stigma at home but are now on the rise.
The new U.S. National Security Strategy issued last month said “the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
But those parties now face a dilemma as disapproval of Trump rises across the continent over his increasingly aggressive foreign policy moves and in particular his efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
GERMANY’S AFD BERATES TRUMP
“Donald Trump has violated a fundamental campaign promise — namely, not to interfere in other countries,” Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany said, while party co-leader Tino Chrupalla rejected “Wild West methods”.
The AfD has been cultivating ties with Trump’s administration – but polls suggest this may no longer be beneficial. A survey by pollster Forsa released on Tuesday showed 71% of Germans see Trump more as an opponent than an ally.
Wariness of Trump has grown since he vowed on Saturday to slap tariffs on a raft of EU countries including Germany, France, Sweden and Britain, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
Those countries had last week sent military personnel to the vast Arctic island at Denmark’s request.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said on Tuesday Europe must react, referring to “anti-coercion measures” and the suspension of the economic agreement signed last year between the EU and the United States.
British populist party Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage has long feted his close ties with Trump, said it was hard to tell if the president was bluffing.
“But to use economic threats against the country that’s been considered to be your closest ally for over a hundred years is not the kind of thing we would expect,” Reform said in a statement published on Jan. 19.
Blunter still was Mattias Karlsson, often cited as chief ideologist of the far-right Sweden Democrats.
“Trump is increasingly resembling a reversed King Midas,” he wrote on X. “Everything he touches turns to shit.”
Political scientist Johannes Hillje said it would always be hard for nationalists to forge a common foreign policy “because the national interests do not always converge.”
Not all European far-right and populist parties have been so critical. Some, like the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom and Spanish Vox, praised Trump for removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yet kept silent on his Greenland threats.
Others, such as Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the nationalist government of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban have called for the issue of Greenland to be settled bilaterally between the United States and Denmark.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis posted a video on social networks on Tuesday in which he brandished a map and a globe to show how big Greenland was and how close it was to Russia if it were to send a missile.
“The U.S. has a long-term interest in Greenland, it is not just an initiative of Donald Trump now,” he said, calling for a diplomatic resolution.
MILD CRITICISM FROM MELONI
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is seen as one of the closest European leaders to Trump, said his decision to slap tariffs on European allies was a “mistake”.
“I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think,” she said on Sunday, adding that she thought there was “a problem of understanding and communication” between Washington and Europe. She has not said anything since, but Italian media have said she is against slapping tariffs on the U.S. in response and is instead seeking to defuse the crisis with talks.
However, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, blamed the renewed trade tensions on the European nations who dispatched soldiers to Greenland.
“The eagerness to announce the dispatch of troops here and there is now bearing its bitter fruit,” he wrote on X.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Crispian Balmer in Rome, Jesus Calero in Madrid, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Jan Lopatka in Prague and Krisztina Than in Budapest, Elizabeth Piper in London and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris)
STOCKHOLM, Jan 21 (Reuters) – A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old man to seven years and 10 months in prison for planning an attack on a cultural festival in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State militant group.
The Stockholm District Court said in a statement that the Syrian-Swedish dual national had intended to carry out an attack in the city-centre’s Kungstradgarden area in August 2025. His sentence included convictions for other crimes, including membership of a terrorist organisation.
“Among other things … he reconnoitred Kungstradgarden and recorded a martyr film that was intended to be published after the crime,” the court said.
“The District Court believes the planned terrorist crime could have seriously harmed Sweden,” it added.
The man, described by prosecutors as “self-radicalised”, denied all the charges against him. He was also found guilty of planning to murder a man in Germany in 2024.
The Stockholm Culture Festival, which was the intended target, drew 2 million visitors over five days last year.
Islamic State, which imposed hardline Islamist rule over millions of people in Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2019, is attempting to stage a comeback after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Simon Johnson and Ros Russell)
SOFIA, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Rumen Radev painted a bleak picture of Bulgarian politics when he resigned as president on Monday in an unprecedented move that capped four years of weak governments and snap elections. He also offered a solution: himself.
“Our democracy will not survive if we leave it to corrupt officials, conspirators and extremists,” he said in a televised speech. “Your trust obliges me to protect the state, the institutions and our future.”
Radev, a former air force commander, has waited years for this moment. Since a political crisis erupted in 2020, he has sat above the parliamentary mess, appointing caretaker governments when needed, and gradually amassing influence as the Balkan country’s ceremonial head of state.
Now, with polls showing him to be Bulgaria’s most popular politician, he is widely expected to form a new party and run in parliamentary elections this spring.
Radev has not announced his intention to run yet, but the timing appears to be in his favour.
Popular protests against corruption and a budget that proposed higher taxes ousted the last government in December, and voters are increasingly sick of a small elite of politicians who have dominated for years. These include former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who runs the leading GERB party, and oligarch Delyan Peevski, who is under U.S. and UK sanctions for corruption.
Still, he faces a massive challenge to turn around the fortunes of one of the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt members, where prosecutors allege that hundreds of millions of euros in European funds have been diverted into the pockets of businessmen and officials, public tenders have been fixed, and people have become so disillusioned that most don’t bother to vote.
Turnout dropped from nearly 50% in April 2021 to below 35% in a snap election in June 2024.
The challenge extends to Radev’s own personal image. He will face questions about his pro-Kremlin stance on the war in Ukraine, his scepticism on the euro, and even an allegedly damaging energy deal signed by a government he appointed.
“Radev offers the possibility of change to Bulgarian society, but also predictability – this is a perfect recipe,” said Parvan Simeonov, the founder of Myara, a Bulgarian polling agency. “However, there are issues and questions that should be answered.”
QUESTIONS FOR RADEV TO ANSWER
Radev was voted in as president in 2016 after a military career and training in the United States. In his first term, he became a critic of then Prime Minister Borissov, who was under pressure from corruption allegations.
When police raided Radev’s offices in 2020, Bulgarians saw the move as a hit job and it triggered the largest demonstrations since Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. Months-long protests called for an end to graft, more accountability, and for the government to step down. Radev, meanwhile, was reelected for a second term in 2021.
The protests saw an end to Borissov’s tenure, but what followed was a political crisis in which weak coalitions struggled to last just a few months. The elections this spring will be the eighth in four years.
Graft continues: last year alone, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office said it opened 97 investigations in Bulgaria with damages totalling nearly 500 million euros.
Critics say Radev is partly to blame for questionable dealings done by interim governments that he appointed. This includes a 2023 gas deal between Turkish state gas company Botas and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz that led to losses and an investigation.
COALITION PARTNERS NEEDED
Radev is popular but not enough to win an outright majority, analysts said.
Many point to a possible marriage with the reformist PP-DB party which has also been outspoken against corruption. Still, the party does not agree with Radev’s soft stance towards Russia, or on his reluctance to join the eurozone, which Bulgaria did on January 1.
Radev will also have to clarify his stance on Ukraine after a series of Kremlin-friendly statements in recent years. He clashed with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a meeting in 2023 when he said that military aid to Kyiv would only prolong the conflict.
“God forbid such a tragedy happens (here) and you are in my place,” Zelenskiy said on live TV. “Are you going to say “Putin, take over Bulgarian territories?””
(Writing by Edward McAllisterEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
Jan 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had a “very good” telephone call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte concerning Greenland.
Trump also said he had agreed to a meeting of various parties in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum. He did not specify who the various parties were.
“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back – On that, everyone agrees!” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump had earlier told reporters the United States would talk about acquiring Greenland at this week’s World Economic Forum because Denmark cannot protect the territory.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Tom Hogue)
U.S. stock futures dropped late Monday after global equities sold off as President Donald Trump launches a trade war against NATO allies over his Greenland ambitions.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average sank 401 points, or 0.81%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.91%, and Nasdaq futures sank 1.13%.
Markets in the U.S. were closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. Earlier, the dollar dropped as the safe haven status of U.S. assets was in doubt, while stocks in Europe and Asia largely retreated.
On Saturday, Trump said Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland will be hit with a 10% tariff starting on Feb. 1 that will rise to 25% on June 1, until a “Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
The announcement came after those countries sent troops to Greenland last week, ostensibly for training purposes, at the request of Denmark. But late Sunday, a message from Trump to European officials emerged that linked his insistence on taking over Greenland to his failure to be award the Nobel Peace Prize.
The geopolitical impact of Trump’s new tariffs against Europe could jeopardize the trans-Atlantic alliance and threaten Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
But Wall Street analysts were more optimistic on the near-term risk to financial markets, seeing Trump’s move as a negotiating tactic meant to extract concessions.
Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, described the gambit as “escalate to de-escalate” and pointed out that the timing of his tariff announcement ahead of his appearance at the Davos World Economic Forum this week is likely not a coincidence.
“I’ll leave others to question the merits of that approach, and potential longer-run geopolitical fallout from it, but for markets such a scenario likely means some near-term choppiness as headline noise becomes deafening, before a relief rally in due course when another ‘TACO’ moment arrives,” he said in a note on Monday, referring to the “Trump always chickens out” trade.
Similarly, Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics, also said “cooler heads will prevail” and downplayed the odds that markets are headed for a repeat of last year’s tariff chaos.
In a note Monday, he said investors have learned to be skeptical about all of Trump’s threats, adding that the U.S. economy remains healthy and markets retain key risk buffers.
“Given their deep economic and financial ties, both the US and Europe have the ability to impose significant pain on each other, but only at great cost to themselves,” Goltermann added. “As such, the more likely outcome, in our view, is that both sides recognize that a major escalation would be a lose-lose proposition, and that compromise eventually prevails. That would be in line with the pattern around most previous Trump-driven diplomatic dramas.”
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) announced the addition of Tipico, one of Germany’s top dogs when it comes to sports betting and iGaming, to its ranks. As the newest member of the association, Tipico has expressed a firm commitment to safeguarding the sector’s integrity and championing the EGBA’s ideals.
Tipico Wants to Champion Robust Industry Standards
According to the announcement, the addition of Germany’s leading sports betting and online gambling operator to the EGBA fold reaffirms the association’s position as “the leading voice” of the Old World’s online casino sector. In addition to that, Tipico’s decision to become a part of the EGBA has expanded the latter organization’s presence in one of Europe’s most important gaming markets.
As mentioned, Tipico’s membership of EGBA showcases the operator’s commitment to protecting the industry’s integrity and championing high standards through industry cooperation. According to the announcement, Tipico will now begin contributing to EGBA’s working groups and to the association’s initiatives, which include promoting responsible advertising, safer gambling, and preventing crime such as money laundering.
A Welcome Addition to the EGBA Family
Tipico’s director of public policy, Jocher Weiner, was very pleased to see his company become a part of the European Gaming and Betting Association, hailing the EGBA’s important work and reasserting his team’s unwavering vow to protect players, remain compliant and contribute to the broader sector.
This partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to promoting high industry standards and our fight against the black market for online gambling in Europe.
Jocher Weiner, director of public policy, Tipico
Maarten Haijer, EGBA’s secretary general, welcomed Tipico to the EGBA family. He said that his team is delighted to have the company on board just in time for 2026, lauding its membership as a “strong addition.”
As Germany’s leading online gambling operator with a strong track record, Tipico brings valuable expertise to our association and will reinforce our collective efforts to promote a well-regulated and sustainable gambling sector in Europe.
Maarten Haijer, secretary general, EGBA
Haijer concluded that he is looking forward to working closely with Tipico’s team members and ushering in a new era of exemplary and responsible gaming across Europe.
The EGBA continues to promote best practices across the European gaming sector, urging its members to do more to shield consumers from harm. To that end, the company previously launched a new website dedicated to European Safer Gambling Week, an annual initiative seeking to raise awareness of the risks of gambling, how to play moderately and what safer gambling tools are available to players experiencing struggles.
Jan 19 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s armed forces are introducing a new facet of air defence to transform their system, made up of small groups deploying interceptor drones, as the country braces for new mass Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.
Ukraine is still reeling from a wave of Russian strikes earlier this month that knocked out power and heating to thousands of apartment blocks, particularly in the capital Kyiv.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for air defences to be strengthened, including increased assistance from Ukraine’s Western allies.
“There will be a new approach to the use of air defences by the Air Force, concerning mobile fire groups, interceptor drones and other ‘short-range’ air defence assets,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“The system will be transformed.”
The president announced the appointment of a new deputy Air Force Commander, Pavlo Yelizarov, to oversee and develop the innovation.
Ukraine has rapidly developed its drone manufacturing system since Russia launched its invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022, and has emphasised interceptor drones as an effective and economical way to parry Russian strikes.
In his remarks, Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians to be “extremely vigilant” ahead of anticipated new Russian attacks.
“Russia has prepared for a strike, a massive strike, and is waiting for the moment to carry it out,” he said, urging every region in the country to “be prepared to respond as quickly as possible and help people”.
Both Zelenskiy and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned at the weekend that Ukrainian intelligence had noted Russia was conducting reconnaissance of specific targets, particularly substations that supply nuclear power plants.
The president also said he had instructed Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to make decisions this week regarding difficulties from the recent attacks, including bonuses for tens of thousands of emergency crew members restoring heating and electricity.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
TURIN, Italy, Jan 19 (Reuters) – When Turin hosted the Winter Olympics 20 years ago, it transformed the city’s image from grey industrial home of the troubled Fiat car-making empire to smart Mecca for food, culture and sport.
But the event – remembered in the north-western Italian metropolis for its “Passion lives here” slogan – left a legacy of large debts and unused infrastructure that offers a cautionary tale for Milano Cortina 2026.
“The 2006 Games were very positive in terms of Turin’s morale and international visibility, but less so in terms of long-term infrastructure legacy,” said renowned Turinese architect Carlo Ratti.
Marco Boglione, founder and chairman of Turin-based Basicnet , which controls apparel and sportswear brands including Kappa and Superga, recalls the 2006 Olympics as a collective civic effort that reawakened his city.
“There was an incredible participation from everyone, public and private bodies, Olympic committee, everyone. That was our secret … Turin was the first Olympic city to do something I’d call popular, collective, and it went very well,” he said.
Milan, Italy’s financial capital, and the Alpine resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo will co-host the 2026 Winter Games from February 6-22.
Turin’s Olympic candidacy was dreamed up in the 1990s as part of efforts to reinvent the city and reduce its dependency on Fiat, the once-mighty Italian auto giant that is now a part of the global Stellantis group.
The late Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli, a towering business leader of postwar Italy and the grandfather of Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, was one of the main backers of the Olympics idea.
The Games gave Turin new or upgraded sporting venues, its first metro line, pedestrianised squares, better motorway connections to Alpine resorts that hosted part of the Olympics – and a new sense of local self-confidence.
“It put us on the map,” said Marco Gay, head of local business lobby Unione Industriali. “It gave us the impetus to change, not to be a one-company city but a city that knows how to excel and does well in many sectors.”
Boglione, who enlivened the 2006 Olympics with night-time side events, said Turin was the first Winter Games host that embraced the Summer Olympics format, with “a big city, a big event, lots of fun and entertainment for people in town”.
EUROVISION, TENNIS AND ABANDONED FACILITIES
Tourism has flourished, thanks to top-notch museums – including the world’s oldest Egyptian museum – and a spruced-up city centre that bears witness to Turin’s past as home to the royal Savoy family and as unified Italy’s first capital.
In recent years Turin, home city of soccer clubs Juventus and Torino, hosted the Eurovision Song Contest and the ATP tennis finals, with both events staged at the Inalpi Arena, a venue originally built for the Olympics.
Another Olympic site, the Oval, is a candidate to host speed skating races for the French Alps 2030 Winter Olympics.
But other facilities have been abandoned, with the most egregious examples in mountain valleys near Turin: the bobsleigh track in Cesana, closed since 2011, and ski jumps in Pragelato, also closed and abandoned.
In Turin itself, one of the Olympic Villages has had a troubled history, with parts vandalised and occupied by migrants and drug addicts, until the area was cleared and turned into student and social housing.
“It took a month just to clear out all the garbage and debris. They did a great job, after the previous administration had literally forgotten about us. Now the neighbourhood is liveable,” said Gilberto, a pensioner who lives in the area.
Another part of the village, the so-called “arcate” (arches) – near Fiat’s historic Lingotto factory, now a shopping mall and museum venue – is abandoned, with draft plans to turn them into a biotech park and a sports centre.
“The area … as it is now is a real waste, a real shame, it would be perfect for cultural initiatives,” said Aurora, a 21-year-old nursery student. “I was born and raised here, it’s my neighbourhood, but there is nothing here”.
Francesco Ramella, a transport policy expert at the University of Turin and a fellow at the free-market Istituto Bruno Leoni think tank, has estimated that the Turin Olympics cost 3.3 billion euros ($3.8 billion).
They brought long-term benefits worth 2.5 billion euros, factoring in additional tourism and upgraded infrastructure, meaning a net economic loss of 1.3 billion euros, the professor said.
Milano Cortina is currently budgeted at 5.2 billion euros, including 3.5 billion euros of public money for infrastructure, and 1.7 billion euros in private funds to organise and hold the Games.
According to a study by Italian lender Banca Ifis, they should generate a 5.3-billion-euro “Olympic windfall”, including 1.2 billion euros in extra tourism revenue and 3 billion euros from upgraded infrastructure.
Turin had offered to host the Games again in 2026, saying it would have been a low-cost alternative, re-using the 2006 infrastructure. Once that was rejected, the city turned down the chance to co-host along with Milan and Cortina.
“We did Turin a favour by not participating in the three-way Olympics,” Antonino Iaria, urban planning councillor in 2019-2021 for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), told Reuters.
He said the city would have seen little benefit from hosting “just two or three competitions”.
TURIN’S OLYMPIC DEBT HANGOVER
Turin is today one of Italy’s most indebted cities, largely due to the cost of investments made from the 1990s to prepare the city for the Games, even if the financial situation is easing.
Debt fell to 3.3 billion euros at the end of 2025 from 3.5 billion euros in 2024. Nevertheless, debt-servicing costs, standing at nearly 240 million euros, took up nearly a fifth of current cash expenditure.
Architecture Professor Guido Montanari, deputy mayor for the M5S in 2016-2019, said the post-Olympics financial hangover forced the city into harsh budget austerity, with social and welfare spending particularly affected.
Having seen what happened in Turin, he said he was “against any kind of Olympics, I think they are really something that should be avoided”.
Needless to say, Milano Cortina backers are confident theirs will be a different story.
“Every euro (for the Olympics) is a euro well spent,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who hails from Milan, said in November.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Keith Weir)
MAPUTO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo has cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week due to severe floods that have damaged infrastructure and affected hundreds of thousands of people in the Southern African country.
Chapo wrote in a post on Facebook late on Sunday that Mozambique “is going through a tough time … (and) the absolute priority at this moment is to save lives”.
Heavy rains since mid-December have caused widespread floods in Mozambique’s Gaza, Maputo and Sofala provinces, with several river basins above alert levels, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report on Sunday.
The OCHA report said authorities estimated that more than 400,000 people had been affected, with numbers expected to rise as rains continue.
Neighbouring South Africa has deployed an air force helicopter to Mozambique to help with search-and-rescue efforts.
Heavy rains have also affected parts of South Africa, including the northeast where its renowned Kruger National Park is located. On Monday Kruger reopened to day visitors after being closed for several days.
Flooding has become more frequent and severe in southeastern Africa as climate change makes storms in the adjacent Indian Ocean more powerful.
(Reporting by Custodio Cossa; Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Michael Perry)
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Britain’s populist Reform UK party won another defector from the country’s once dominant Conservative Party on Sunday, attracting lawmaker Andrew Rosindell, part of the Conservatives’ foreign policy team, who said it was time “to put country before party”.
With Reform UK well ahead in the opinion polls before a national election due in 2029, Rosindell is one of more than 20 serving or former Conservative lawmakers to switch to the party led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage. His move gives Reform seven seats in the 650-seat parliament.
Rosindell announced his resignation from his position and from the party “with sorrow” on X, saying “the failure of the Conservative Party both when in government and more recently in opposition” to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was “a clear red line for me”.
“Both the government and the opposition (Conservatives) have been complicit in the surrender of this sovereign British territory to a foreign power,” he said.
The Chagos deal allows Britain to retain control of a strategically important U.S.-UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.
Farage, who welcomed former Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick to his party on Thursday, said in a statement that Rosindell would be “a great addition to our team”.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Paul Simao)
Jan 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said on Sunday that talks with U.S. officials on a resolution of the nearly four-year-old war with Russia would continue at the World Economic Forum opening this week in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Umerov, writing on Telegram, said two days of talks in Florida with a U.S. team including envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, had focused on security guarantees and a post-war recovery plan for Ukraine.
He gave no indication whether any agreements had been achieved at the meeting.
“We agreed to continue work at the team level during the next phase of consultations in Davos,” Umerov wrote.
The two sides, in the latest of a series of meetings intended to work out the details of an agreement, had “discussed in depth” the two issues, “focusing on practical mechanisms and carrying out and implementing them,” Umerov said.
He said his delegation had reported on Russian strikes last week which badly damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and left hundreds of apartment buildings with no heating or electricity.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was important to outline the dire effects of the Russian strikes as they demonstrated that Russia was not interested in diplomacy.
“If the Russians were seriously interested in ending the war, they would have focused on diplomacy,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
He said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that Russia was conducting reconnaissance on key sites in preparation for strikes, including targets linked to Ukraine’s nuclear power stations.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Saturday that there was evidence Russia was considering attacks on power substations supplying nuclear power stations.
Russia has made no comment on the allegations.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski in Winnipeg; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Matthew Lewis)
“Somebody in power in the United States may be disappointed,” Ullman continued. “He will lose it.”
Read on for the full list of 2026 European Film Awards winners below, and don’t miss Vanity Fair’s complete coverage of the 2026 awards season.
Best Film
WINNER: Sentimental Value
Afternoons of Solitude Arco Dog of God Fiume o Morte! It Was Just an Accident Little Amelie Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake Riefenstahl Sirāt Songs of Slow Burning Earth Sound of Falling Tales From the Magic Garden The Voice of Hind Rajab With Hasan in Gaza
Director
WINNER: Joachim Trier—Sentimental Value
Yorgos Lanthimos—Bugonia Oliver Laxe—Sirāt Jafar Panahi—It Was Just an Accident Mascha Schilinski—Sound of Falling
Sergi López—Sirāt Mads Mikkelsen—The Last Viking Toni Servillo—La Grazia Idan Weiss—Franz
Screenwriter
WINNER: Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier—Sentimental Value
Santiago Fillol and Oliver Laxe—Sirāt Jafar Panahi—It Was Just an Accident Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter—Sound of Falling Paolo Sorrentino—La Grazia
Documentary
WINNER: Fiume o Morte!
Afternoons of Solitude Riefenstahl Songs of Slow Burning Earth With Hasan in Gaza
Animated Feature
WINNER: Arco
Dog of God Little Amelie Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake Tales From the Magic Garden
Best Score
WINNER: Hania Rani—Sentimental Value
Jerskin Fendrix—Bugonia Michael Fiedler, Eike Hosenfeld—Sound of Falling
Cinematographer
WINNER: Mauro Herce for Sirāt
Fabian Gamper for Sound of Falling Manu Dacosse for The Stranger
Editor
WINNER: Cristóbal Fernández—Sirāt
Yorgos Mavropsaridis—Bugonia Toni Froschhammer—Die My Love
Production Designer
WINNER: Laia Ateca—Sirāt
James Price—Bugonia Jørgen Stangebye Larsen—Sentimental Value
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Global markets face a fresh bout of volatility this week after President Donald Trump vowed to slap tariffs on eight European nations until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
Trump said he would impose an additional 10% import tariffs from February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain, which will rise to 25% on June 1 if no deal is reached.
“Hopes that the tariff situation has calmed down for this year have been dashed for now – and we find ourselves in the same situation as last spring,” said Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding.
Sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025 sent shockwaves through financial markets. Investors then largely looked past Trump trade threats in the second half of the year, viewing them as noise and responding with relief as Trump made deals with the likes of Britain and the European Union.
While that lull might be over, market moves on Monday could be dampened by the experience that investor sentiment had been more resilient and global economic growth stayed on track.
Nonetheless, Schmieding expected the euro could come under some pressure when Asian trade begins. The euro ended Friday at around $1.16 against the dollar, having hit its lowest levels since late November.
Implications for the dollar were less clear. It remains a safe haven, but could also feel the impact of Washington being at the centre of geopolitical ruptures, as it did last April.
“For European markets it will be a small setback, but not something comparable to the Liberation Day reaction,” Schmieding said.
European stocks are trading near record highs, with Germany’s DAX and London’s blue-chip FTSE index up more than 3% since the start of the year, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 1.3%.
European defence shares are likely to remain an outlier – benefiting from increased geopolitical tensions. Defence stocks have jumped almost 15% this month, as the U.S. seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro fuelled concerns about Greenland.
Denmark’s closely managed crown will also likely be in focus. It has been weakening, but rate differentials are a major factor and it is still close to the central rate at which it is pegged to the euro. It is trading not far from six-year lows against the euro.
“The U.S.-EU trade war is back on,” said Tina Fordham, geopolitical strategist and founder of Fordham Global Foresight.
Trump’s latest move came as top officials from the EU and South American bloc Mercosur signed a free trade agreement.
‘UNTHINKABLE SORTS OF DEVELOPMENTS’
The dispute over Greenland is just one hot spot.
Trump has also weighed intervening in unrest in Iran, while the U.S. administration’s threat to indict Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has reignited concerns about its independence.
Against this backdrop, safe-haven gold remains near record highs.
The World Economic Forum’s annual risk perception survey, released ahead of its annual meeting in Davos, which will be attended by Trump, identified economic confrontation between nations as the number one concern replacing armed conflict.
While investors have grown increasingly wary of geopolitical risk, they have also become used to it to some extent.
“Investor sentiment has proven quite resilient in the face of the sort of continuing unthinkable sorts of developments, which probably reflects a combination of like faith that Trump just won’t be able to do all of the things that he talks about mixed with a sense that none of this kind of moves the needle on asset prices,” said Fordham.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Dhara Ranasinghe ; Editing by Alexander Smith)
BRUSSELS, Jan 17 (Reuters) – European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over U.S. President Donald Trump’s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Phil Blenkinsop, Editing by Mark Potter and Chris Reese)
PRAGUE, Jan 16 (Reuters) – A Czech national imprisoned in Venezuela since 2024 has been released along with other foreign nationals, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said on Friday.
The Czech citizen was detained over claims he was planning to participate in a plot to kill then President Nicolas Maduro and overthrow the government, according to Czech media.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet and Jan Lopatka; Editing by Joe Bavier)
